Page:Back to the Republic.djvu/26

 China, Mexico and Russia at the present time are all types of democracy. In each instance the pendulum swung all the way from the extreme of autocracy to the extreme of democracy. It did not stop at the golden mean. These countries are not republics.

England, Italy, Belgium and France are frequently spoken of as "the allied democracies of Europe;" yet with one exception each country supports a royal family at a tremendously large expense, which is one of the elements of autocracy.

It would create considerable confusion of thought in the medical world if we should speak of disease as health; if, in the realm of law, we should speak of crime as a contract; if, in the realm of nature, we should speak of a cyclone as a sea breeze; if, in the commercial world, we should speak of a bankrupt as a business success; if, in the religious world, we should speak of a dime novel as the Bible; yet these are fair illustrations to parallel the inaccuracy that prevails in the present-day use of governmental terms.

The terms "republic" and "democracy" are thoughtlessly and inaccurately used almost synonomously in dictionaries, in encyclopedias and in political literature and discussion. This country is frequently spoken of as a democracy, and